This collection of short stories recommended by novelist Sarah Hoyt looks good so far. The theme and characters remind me of Allen Steele’s novels of men living and working in orbit. Also the rough and tumble Belters of the Expanse.
The future, as the author says, won’t just happen. Someone has to build it.
UPDATE: The author, Martin Shoemaker, wrote Today I Am Paul, a good short story about a sophisticated android who cares for the dying. It’s free here.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Space
Amazing how the G7 kibitzers (and their elitest clones in the media) got all bent at Trump simply telling the truth about tariffs and other trade barriers.
“Trump is right that most countries protect their agricultural industries with tariff and non-tariff barriers. (The EU’s ban on GMO crops is an example of a non-tariff barrier that is rational only as an act of protectionism.) The U.S. has the most efficient agricultural sector in the world, and since most countries can’t compete with our farmers, they erect trade barriers. How is this any different from our imposing tariffs on steel or automobiles? It isn’t.
“Does Canada actually impose a 270% tariff on American dairy products, as Trump keeps saying? Yes, it does, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Company:
Canada levies a tariff of 270 per cent on milk, 245 per cent on cheese and 298 per cent on butter in an effort to keep imports out and tightly control supply.
“So Trump is right. A world without tariffs is a desirable goal, but a world in which the U.S. has no tariffs, but other countries erect barriers to our products, is not.”
But the G7 bigwigs meet to party, not to tell the truth. And truth-tellers are not welcome. Especially not in the snooze media. It interrupts their snoozing.
Via Power Line Blog
Posted in Blogosphere, Mediacrats, Political corruption, The Economy, The Ruling Class, Trump
“Why should anyone take today’s children seriously? They eat laundry detergent, understand nothing about the constitution, are ignorant, and are so weak minded they need safe spaces to escape from words they don’t agree with. These kids want to take away our [gun] rights only because their elders told them to do so. They are Red Guards without the dress sense of chairman Mao.” —commenter BattleofThePyramids at Instapundit.
When it’s a leak by the Special Counsel Mueller’s office to try an obstruction of justice case in the lapdog media rather than a court of law.
“Unfortunately for them [the] majority will not be bothered with detailed legalese letter one set of lawyers sent to another set of lawyers. The sound of collective public yawn is deafening.” —commenter Janna Blantner at Power Line Blog.
Via Power Line Blog.
Back when Art Acevedo was police chief in Austin, he often made questionable calls, particularly in regard to what public information would be withheld from the public.
He was a prickly potentate behind his shiny badge and incongruous general’s stars, threatening to sue his social media critics for libel. In other words, he was more politician than cop.
Now that he’s moved up to the big time as chief of the Houston PD, he’s more pol than ever, backing gun control as the answer to school and other massacres. And, in typical Acevedo fashion, he’s dismissing opposing views as irrelevant. Possibly even libelous.
“Chief Acevedo, [Kevin] Williamson reminds us [in the Weekly Standard], is an appointed official, not an elected one. As such, it is not his place to offer judgments on the propriety of anyone else’s opinions on gun control, or anything else. Surely there are a good many people in Houston who do not share Acevedo’s beliefs, yet he presumes to tell them their opinions are of no consequence to him and should be ignored by lawmakers.”
The Acevedos of the world need to climb down from their high horses before they’re dragged down by the very people whose views they disdain.
Via PJMedia
UPDATE: Acevedo is threatening to sue again, this time the NRA’s spokeswoman Dana Loesch who responds: “It’s surreal to see a chief reacting to free speech this way.” That’s Acevedo. What an ass!
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Posted in Blogosphere, Guns, The Culture
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 